Henly brings the heat

The five-piece Beaumont rock band put out an EP last year but hasn’t quite found its place in the local music scene — Henly is definitely rock, but it’s not indie rock (a dominant sound in these parts). Henly plays hard rock, but their sound doesn’t exactly fit into the metal scene, another of Beaumont’s biggest music communities.

With the help of bands like Angel Siren (which Henly opens for on Friday night at Dylan’s), Tim Apshire, lead vocalist for Henly, is hoping 2014 is the year all that changes:

Q Henly released an EP last year called “The Chase.” Tell me about that.
A Coming into 2013, we really didn’t know what to expect. Members of Henly were originally scattered across the music scene in different projects, such as Stale Mind, Kill the Theory, Wimberly and Attached.

Within a year of forming, Henly, as a band, decided to convene from their roots of the past and go in a different direction, keeping everyone’s individual influences and using them to create a fresh, new sound. The album is just that: a portrayal of many different roots pushing out sound in search of our re-invented selves.

Q How would you describe Henly’s sound to people who’ve never heard the band?
A To us, that is the most difficult question we get. If you ask that question to each individual, you’d probably get five different answers.

We all come from different backgrounds, musically. Our influences range from acoustic music to hardcore. I suppose that’s why we try to find a happy medium, and that’s why it’s so fun to write music together.

Q Looks like y’all have been playing more out-of-town gigs in places like Galveston and Houston. Is playing more out of Beaumont part of your 2014 game-plan?
A We go where the scene allows us to grow as a band. We have played quite a few shows this year in the Beaumont area as well. We have no preference, but we hope to broaden our scene even further in 2014.

We played many shows where little profit comes into play, other than merch sales, but we simply want to get our music out there. As a band, we know that means playing as many shows as we can, mixed with the proper placement!

Q How has your album been selling?
A We wanted to simply spread our music everywhere we go, broadcasting our sound to gain an audience. To our surprise, this actually worked pretty well. We sold about 140 hard copy CDs since November. This doesn’t include online downloads.

Q What were the biggest challenges you faced as a band in 2013?
A Honestly, it was trying to develop our audience, which we are still working on. We only played a few shows at the start of 2013 in Beaumont and found that the scene here was pretty set. When I say set, I only mean that people really stuck with what they had listened to and we didn’t really fit in with the current bands.

Bands like Knuckle Deep, Angel Siren, and Dear You really helped us out by putting us on shows.

Q Biggest achievements?
A Starting from scratch and building ourselves up. The later part of 2013, we played bigger venues like House of Blues, Scout bar and Fitzgerald’s. It has been a true honor to share the stage with so many different bands and to represent Beaumont/Mid-County in Houston. We are proud of where we come from and want people to know that.

Q What are you hoping for, as a band, in 2014?
A To be honest, I hope to continue our growth. I guess that would be a typical answer, but it means so much meeting new people. The Title of our EP is called “The Chase” because we’re simply chasing every ear that will listen, putting in every ounce of creativity, passion and heart.